I have never considered myself to be a Beatles fan and when my friends would tell me to listen, or make me listen, I never wanted to. I thought their music was boring and it just didn’t seem to appeal to my taste. But the reason for that is because I never gave it a chance. Doing this blog project and having picked this band which I knew I most likely wouldn’t like now, since I didn’t back then, opened my eyes. All it takes it to give music a chance and listen with an open mind. I can’t say that I’m a Beatles fan now and that I fell in love but I wouldn’t be opposed to listening to more of their music. I also came to know that some of the songs that I remember hearing as a child and really liking were by the Beatles. I think their voices work very well together and make the album very pleasant to listen to. I believe that some artists have really annoying voices and make good songs sound weird sometimes, but their voices seem mellow and in great harmony which is something I look for in music and really appreciate. This is an album that I would’ve never listened to on my own and it’s great to find a new appreciation for a new type of music. I honestly think that if I lived through that time period I’d probably be one of the screaming Beatles fans. Their style of writing music was also unique along with the things they sang about. I had to look up most of the meanings to their songs and I found them to be odd sometimes. From a man with a hammer representing Karma, in Maxwell Silver’s Hammer to the simplicities of life like the blue of the sky in the song Because. I’d suggest this album to others who have never listened to the Beatles and convince them to definitely give it a chance. Overall I would rate this album a 4, and in my opinion it was an amazing “end of career” album.

Firstly, I think this song is definitely correctly titled since it was the song that all four of the Beatles recorded all together, and also supposed to be the last song on the second side of the album (until Her Majesty got put in last). Secondly, the beginning of the song really makes me want to go back during this time period for some reason. I didn’t love the song and I didn’t hate it either, but to be honest it’s not a song that would be on my iPod or that I’d listen to occasionally. This song, although short (only 2:20), did one of the things that annoys me the most. That is have one of those really long parts right in the middle of the song where it’s only instrumental and you’re wondering when the words are going to start up again! This one wasn’t as bad because I really liked the way that the guitar played during this part, which by the way lasts about a minute and 10 seconds, and if you go back to the duration time, that’s basically half the song. I came to find that this song contains a solo by each one of the Beatles, even though Ringo didn’t like having any solos, but that he liked to “play for the singer” which I found to be interesting and cute, for lack of a better word, since most artists pretty much love to be in the spotlight.

STARR: Well, I play with the singer. If you listen to the Beatles songs, the tracks…

KING: You played for the singer?

STARR: I played for the singer, because if he’s singing, there’s no good in me boogeying all over the kit, you know what I mean? So it’s just stay out, hold the time. If it needs to be raised, you raise it, bring it down.

The song has somewhat of a melancholic feeling to it, especially at the end. The way the drums are played at the end gives it the tone of a farewell song. The last line of the song is also very memorable which I like. “The love you take is equal to the love you make.” After listening to the song I couldn’t get that line out of replay in my mind. Personally, I don’t think a song like this would be played on the radio since it’s so short and doesn’t have many words to it. The song fit right in I think, and it would’ve been a better ending to the album than “Her Majesty”.

I laughed while listening to this song at first. It has a “circusy” kind of tune that gets really catchy at first, and can quickly turn into one of those songs that you just can’t get out of your head. I think that it’s one of those songs that you can either love at first, and then hate because it gets annoying. Or you can hate it and have it really grow on you because it’s just so catchy. George Harrison also describes the song that way. It’s “one of those instant whistle-along tunes which some people hate, and other people really like. It’s a fun song, but it’s kind of a drag because Maxwell keeps on killing everyone like his girlfriend then the school teacher, and then, finally, the judge.” That’s something that really confused me about the song at first. I thought it was odd that a song about some type of murderer would have such a fun tune to it. But I later discovered that “’Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ applies to “the law of karma,” which basically states that as soon as a person does something that’s not good or right, they get punished.” But the song talks about a girl getting invited to the movies, a teacher reprimanding a student, and a judge giving an order all getting struck by karma. The idea is that “Just when everything is going smoothly, ‘bang bang’ down comes Maxwell’s Silver Hammer and ruins everything.” This is what made me like the song more because I’m big on karma and I think everybody gets what’s coming to them. I think it’s even funnier that it happens at the most unexpected times when a person seems the happiest. It makes karma just that much sweeter. I like how they randomly used a hammer, makes it kind of creepy and scary. I guess if you do wrong, you should definitely fear karma and this song depicts it in a great and (somewhat) funny way. I can say that it’s a song I would play to brighten my day and put a smile on my face.

This is a song that I have heard many times before and I have always enjoyed the tune of it and the way it changes in between the verses. I like that there’s no chorus, only occasionally the lyrics “Come together right now, over me.” I didn’t know what the song meant even after listening to it a few times, and after looking it up I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it’s about the Beatles themselves. According to the source the first line of each verse is about Paul, the second about George, the third about Ringo, and the fourth about John. The song is about all of them coming together and getting over their problems and hostility – “over me.” Someone also stated the following which I found really creepy, but doubt it’s true at all: “The lyric “come together right now over me” refers to “coming together” over Paul’s grave. Also, the lyric “one and one and one is three” refers to there being only three Beatles after Paul’s death.” Apparently it was also meant to be a song for a political campaign, but the politician ended up incarcerated and they just used the song for themselves instead. I also listened to a slightly different version of the song, “The not-often-heard #17 outtake of John’s “Come Together” from the 1969 Abbey Road sessions”, which you can listen to here. Although the beat was the same, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the final version that was put on the album. Overall, I found every aspect of the song to be appealing. The tone of voice, the tune of the song, the bass was great, and it also had a great message (as long as it has nothing to do with the previous mention of death at least). I don’t think that songs by the Beatles get air play today, but if they did it would probably be on a station you don’t hear much about. The airplay information is the following according to a Beatles database website: “Come Together (1969) #1 US, sales: 2 million, airplay: 2 million.” But apparently the cover of the song by Aerosmith does get radio play today.

I first heard this song in high school through one of my Beatles obsessed friends. She kept going on and on about how amazing it was, while I sat there with a blank look on my face. Listening to this song again, was no better than the first time I heard it. I can’t deal with long and repetitive songs. “I want you so bad/It’s driving me mad” is repeated for eight minutes with the occasional “She’s so heavy” included in there. It was written for Yoko Ono, John Lennon’s wife. I think it could’ve been better. It was disappointing and to me it seems like a quick song that they just made to fill up space in the album or something. After all, it was the last song they recorded together. “The lyrics to “I Want You” were once read aloud on a British show called “24 Hours” as an example of the ‘banalities of pop music…’” I have to agree and say that to me it was a dull song and it just seemed like “blah blah blah …” The idea behind the song is nice, it being about love and how much he wants this woman, but not even the content of the song did it for me as it sometimes has with other songs. I was bored and I just couldn’t wait for the song to be over. I did enjoy the beginning of the song though with the guitar and drums. I actually enjoyed the parts of the song with just the tune and no lyrics being sung. To be honest there’s not much more I feel that I can say about this song because I simply didn’t enjoy listening to it. I thought listening to the song several times after would make it grow on me but it didn’t change my mind either. I also don’t think it’s a song that would be put on the radio because of its length, unless there was a radio edit. It’s a song with potential, if only they would have been a little more creative with the words.

This is my favorite song off the album. I think one of the main reasons why it’s my favorite is because it’s a song I have heard ever since I was a little girl and it just feels really familiar and warm. I never even knew it was by the Beatles though until I listened to this album. I love the tune of the guitar in this song especially in the beginning. It makes me feel comfort, calm, happiness, and sadness all at the same time. When looking up some background on the song I thought it was interesting that the emotions that I feel while I’m listening to the song could definitely relate to the making of the song. It was written during the time that the Beatles were breaking up and after their manager died, leaving the band to deal with more of the business aspect which they didn’t enjoy. They felt pressured and upset. Then George Harrison went walking in the sunshine of Eric Clapton’s garden and wrote this song. It’s saying that no matter what, things always get better. The sun will come out even when you think it won’t. It’s an incentive to make it through hard times. I was listening to this song at home, it was freezing, and all I wanted to do was go out and have some fun, considering it was a Friday night. It managed to cheer me up and give me a little push to get through my assignments. I love that music can do that. His voice is also really soothing which makes the song even better, and when the beat picks up it makes you just want to jam along. The only part that somewhat annoyed me about this song was when they repeated “Sun, sun, sun, here it comes” for about 30 seconds. I don’t like anything that repeats for too long in any song, no matter how great I think it is. But that little part obviously doesn’t make me stop loving the song. I’m not really a Beatles fan at all, but I feel that this is a song that pretty much anyone can enjoy. The video of them performing it made me want to cry for some strange reason. I love it. Here it is. \

I can say that I feel much better about their music since I’ve taken the time not only to listen to the tracks a few times, but to also research what some of the confusing song meanings are. I do feel that there was more effort put into more songs than others, as if they only put song lyrics together because they had nothing else to say and needed to fill up some space on the album. Considering that this was their final album, maybe they were just in a rush to finish and each do their own thing? I don’t think they’re horrible but I also think that they have been hyped up a little too much and that people tend to give them way more credit than they deserve. But this is only one album that I am giving a chance and I’m sure that if this one wasn’t so good, that many of their other previous albums are much better. I still feel the hippy type of feel to their songs, but I don’t think that’s something that will necessarily change – or maybe it will by the time I get to the final impression. I feel like their tone goes from serious to funny really quickly and then romantic – they do have a variety which is great. But from a personal taste in music, I don’t like things to switch off too much during an album. I do like a few songs, more than I did when initially listening. Here Comes the Sun will honestly forever be my favorite. I also enjoyed Come Together and Her Majesty even though it was a 30 second song. Considering that this album has about 17 songs on it, I don’t think it’s all that great if I can only get around to liking three or four of their songs. Maybe they just could have done better when writing their songs, or maybe I’m just not being open-minded enough. I do hope that by the end of this blog project I am able to see what everyone else seems to see in the Beatles.

I feel so-so on this Beatles album so far. There are a few songs on the album that were familiar to me and I was pleasantly surprised to find that. I always told myself that I didn’t like the Beatles, but I never took the time to listen. It’s kind of like one of those things where you say you know you won’t like something even though you’ve never tried it. I guess I can be close minded to music from other decades but this assignment might change my mind. I like the beats to some of their songs, but since I haven’t researched the songs yet, a lot of their songs confuse me. I’m big on listening to the lyrics when I’m judging a song and if I don’t understand what is being spoken about I tend to just shun it away. Their music is very different to anything that I normally listen to but I am willing to give it more of a chance. To be honest, what I heard is what I pretty much what I had expected to hear, with that 60s kind of hippy feel. Their songs were confusing to me since most of the albums that I listen to all seem to have a specific theme. This album was just talking about a bunch of different things, and using metaphors that I couldn’t even begin to understand. A lot of the songs were pretty short, which I admit I enjoyed since I didn’t want to spend 5 minutes listening to a song I felt no connection to. Finally, I might not really know what rock music is I guess, but this album didn’t sound like the rock I know today. Possibly the genre has changed over the decades, but this isn’t an album that I would classify under rock, but then again I’m no expert on music genres. I hope that by listening to the album again that my feelings will change towards their music. They must have been doing something right with their music since they were so famous after all. I have to rate this album a 2.5 so far.

So overall I have to say that I didn’t hate the movie as much as I thought I would. I liked the fact that it was based on a true story. I think it’s really amazing and crazy how this one man went out of his way and jeopardized everything just to tell the truth and look out for the health of the people. I found it really funny actually, and also strange that these people supposedly didn’t know that nicotine was addictive. I believe that after he agreed to go on air and the story got put out there, that it should have been made to be illegal. Nicotine is a drug, and it not only kills those who smoke it, but those who do not smoke it as well through second hand smoke. So even after all the trouble he went through to expose the facts about the company, everyone still goes about doing the same thing. All they got was a $246 billion settlement out of it, which is a lot of money but it’s kind of like “Oh wow that’s it?” That’s just my personal opinion.

I was also unaware about people having to sign confidentiality agreements at their jobs. It definitely was a great insight on seeing how things work with the media sometimes and how stories have to be altered, and what some people have to go through to get the truth out there. I know that he did it all with good intentions and for the benefit of the people, but I think that it was all a bit much. Personally I would never put my family in any type of danger, or risk going to jail for the rest of my life just to tattle tale on a job that fired me. I felt that once he got the new teaching job, he should have just left everything else alone and started his new life, with his new job, in his new home, with his family. I was amazed to find out how he made everything work out though without having suffer anything more than the loss of his wife and kids. I also found it to be unfair that after all the trouble he was put through about coming forward and being a hero for the people, that they end up airing an edited version of it, even though the full one was eventually aired. I think honesty is a really big thing that is lacked with the media sometimes because people twist what actually happened to make a certain point or to make themselves not look so bad. It’s something that shouldn’t happen, but people will forever be scheming and doing wrong if it means that they will be gaining profit from it.

It’s just insane to see how public relations really works, and how they tried to make Wigand look bad in the middle of the whole fiasco. People who are already are doing the wrong thing obviously have no problem stooping even lower to make the correct person look bad. Even going after another business (CBS) through the whole “tortious interference” point. In the end, I’m glad that everything did work out.

Firstly, when it comes to the Bush interview, I don’t really see why it was banned. In my opinion Bush was just talking a bunch of mumbo jumbo and his answers didn’t seem too relevant. If that was the reason for not broadcasting it in America, I’m pretty sure that most of America, if not all, knew how much of a bad speaker Bush was and how he obviously has not been one of America’s greatest presidents. So I hope it wasn’t banned because it was feared that people would feel some type of negative way towards Bush. I think it was rude how he was talking to the interviewer. He wouldn’t even let her speak! In Obama’s interview he was also telling the interviewer not to interrupt, but he wasn’t rude about it. And I feel that Obama had relevant answers to the questions he was being asked. Bush said things like “Uh, my job is to … do my job” and putting things in about how America feeds the hungry. What? Do you even know what this interview is about? Do you even know what your job is? He spoke about how America having to lead, but he’s not the one who has to go out there and fight. I learned nothing from that interview. Obama was also being rushed by the interviewer, but I feel that he answered the questions as best as he could and he made sense while he was speaking. To be honest I never bothered to look into the whole health reform issue, but this interview showed me what it was and I don’t really understand why so many people were against it. It did seem like the right thing to do. Obama’s interview was definitely more educational than Bush’s was. And lastly, the Rumsfeld and Al Jazeera interview can’t even be called an interview. He basically answered no questions, and just sat there back talking the interviewer, having a little kid “shut up” “no you shut up” fight. What the heck is that? It seemed like Rumsfeld probably kept continuing the dumb argument and disrespecting the interviewer, and even disparaging him, because he didn’t know how to answer what he was being asked. For a man his age I would’ve thought he knew better. But that clip was just ridiculous.